A group of Afghan migrant workers enter Afghan territory after leaving Iran at the Islam Qala border in Herat province November 5, 2012.

CREDIT: REUTERS/MOHAMMAD SHOIB

Afghanistan will send a delegation to Iran to ask the government to extend temporary visas to allow 760,000 Afghan refugees who have no documents and risk deportation to stay on for at least a year, an Afghan government spokesman said on Wednesday.

There are almost 1 million registered Afghan refugees in Iran, according to the United Nations, most of whom arrived before 2001 when U.S.-led troops toppled the hard-line Taliban Islamist regime.

But those who arrived afterwards are required to have their permits assessed on an individual basis, making it harder for them to obtain the paperwork needed to be officially registered, according to the United Nation’s refugee agency.

“The delegation will request the Iranian government to extend the visas for at least one more year,” said the Afghan chief executive’s deputy spokesman, Javid Faisal.

Just as the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review of Iran’s human rights record is taking place in Geneva and representatives of that country protest that they safeguard and uphold the human rights of all their citizens, the authorities in one region of Iran have launched a widespread, pre-planned, systematic attack against Baha’i business owners. This has brought further pain and hardship to countless families who are already suffering from the consequences of government policies aimed at nothing less than the economic strangulation of the Baha’i community in Iran.

On the morning of Saturday 25 October, the authorities descended on no fewer than 79 Baha’i-owned shops in Kerman, Rafsanjan, and Jiroft, summarily sealing the premises which were closed to allow the proprietors to observe a Baha’i Holy Day.

In a blatant attempt to besmirch the good reputation of the Baha’i owners, the authorities displayed banners at the shops asserting that the owners had violated the rules governing business and trade practices.

The Baha’is have justly earned high repute among their fellow citizens for honesty and trustworthiness in all their dealings – including among their Muslim employees and colleagues, as well as their customers and clients. Members of the Baha’i community are bending every effort to pursue justice through the legal avenues available to them, even though it is clear that the action against them is state-sponsored. They are also calling upon the authorities to provide evidence for the unfounded accusations leveled against so many Baha’i shop-owners, including specific laws and standards that have purportedly been breached.

“Representatives of a state that claims its Constitution and laws are based upon Islamic teachings and principles would do well to consider the impact of their duplicities on the younger generation and the future of their country,” said Ms. Bani Dugal, Representative of the Baha’i International Community. “We call upon all governments to exert pressure upon the government of Iran to stop this and all other forms of discrimination against the Baha’is of Iran, who remain innocent of the accusations levelled against them and seek only to contribute to the advancement of their nation as loyal, law-abiding citizens.”

Abbas Araghchi (C), Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, arrives at the Austria Center Vienna after another round of talks between the EU and P5+1 on May 16, 2014 in Vienna. (photo by DIETER NAGL/AFP/Getty Images)

Iranian nuclear negotiator and Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Aragchi said that the nuclear talksbetween Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) may be extended beyond the Nov. 24 deadline.

“Time is passing rapidly and we are still not unhopeful to reach a conclusion by Nov. 24,” Aragchi told reporters at a meeting with the judiciary officials in Mashhad.

On the upcoming talks in Vienna, Araghchi said, “If the results of this next round of talks are not good enough, we certainly will not reach a final deal by Nov. 24.”

Araghchi said that the Oct. 14 meeting will be bilateral talks with the United States and European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton. The Oct. 15 meeting will be trilateral talks betweenAshton, Iran’s lead negotiator and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Araghchi, Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi and US Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman are also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings.

“These negotiations will be about the topics of sanctions and how to lift them and enrichment,” Araghchi said, adding that he hopes “we can open a new path.”

Iran and the P5+1 initially reached an interim deal in November 2013. Iran suspended some nuclear activity in exchange for the temporary lifting of some sanctions and the unblocking of some funds. In July 2014, the negotiators agreed to extend the deadline until Nov. 24.

On the last negotiations that took place on the sidelines of the 69th UN General Assembly, Araghchi said, “In New York, there were expectations that progress would take place, but that did not happen.” Western negotiators also said that “limited progress” had been made in those talks.

According to the spokesman of the parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Seyed Hossein Naghvi-Hosseini, Zarif’s report to the committee about the New York negotiations did not appear optimistic. According to Naghi-Hosseini, Zarif told the committee that lobbies in the United States affiliated with Israel did not want any type of deal made with Iran and for this reason, the United States was not looking to reach an agreement, and that Iran needed to prove to others that they tried to reach a deal. The comments of this committee, which has taken a hard line against the nuclear talks and previously leaked a number of details about the nuclear talks, did not receive wide media coverage inside Iran.

President Hassan Rouhani’s own adviser, Ali Younessi, contradicted Naghvi-Hosseini and said that the United States, of all the P5+1 countries, was the most inclined toward reaching a final deal with Iran, but that China and Russia did not want to see a deal happen. However, he added that he was not optimistic about reaching a final deal.

Iranian-Americans attempting to send money to Iran for humanitarian purposes are still experiencing major difficulties despite US authorization and the creation of a special channel for some transactions under the interim accord on Iran’s nuclear program.

When Mohammad Farivar, a gastroenterologist who teaches at Boston University and Harvard Medical School, tried to send slightly more than $100,000 to Iran this summer from his charity’s long-standing account at what is now Santander Bank, he found it not only impossible to complete the transaction, but was also notified shortly thereafter that his account would be summarily closed. The doctor shared his correspondence with the bank, and his frustrations, with Al-Monitor.

Farivar said he had collected the funds from Iranian-Americans in the Boston area on behalf of the Earthquake Relief Fund for Orphans, a charity he founded more than two decades ago, to build an addition to an orphanage in the Iranian city of Kashan. He deposited the money in the organization’s account at Santander, which took over Sovereign Bank, where the charity opened an account in 1990.

Farivar’s nonprofit has aided earthquake victims in other countries, including Pakistan, and it sent money to Iran following the 2004 earthquake in Bam. Farivar said he decided to go forward with the Kashan project because a year ago, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which deals with sanctions, gave blanket approval for such activities.

A Treasury official confirmed to Al-Monitor that on Sept. 10, 2013, the department issued a general license permitting US nongovernmental groups “to provide certain humanitarian and not-for-profit services to Iran that directly benefit the Iranian people.” The license authorizes funds transfers in support of such activities of up to half a million dollars a year.

Iranian-Americans are also authorized to send personal remittances to family and friends in Iran. The official said, “So long as the funds originating from a US financial institution are routed through a third country, the ultimate destination could be either a non-designated [not sanctioned] Iranian bank or money service provider.” The official added that this mechanism predates the interim nuclear deal signed with Iran last November.

When Farivar tried to wire the money from the charity’s account to an individual at an HSBC bank in Hong Kong for transfer to Iran, Santander closed the account. Farivar complained to Roman Blanco, president of Santander’s operations in the United States. Blanco did not respond, but JoAnn Gruber, a vice president of the Spain-based bank who manages customer relations with Americans, replied in a Sept. 26 letter that Farivar shared with Al-Monitor.

Gruber wrote, “Any decision to close an account is our decision and no information regarding such a decision is communicated, released or provided to any individual or entity outside of the bank.” According to Farivar, “They closed a legitimate account because I tried to send money to a person in China” to then transfer to Iran following OFAC guidance. Blanco did not respond to an email inquiry from Al-Monitor.

Farivar said he found the Chinese individual through a money-exchange house in Iran and that the procedure — encouraged by OFAC because the United States bars direct transactions between American and Iranian banks — is prone to abuse. “It’s money laundering 101,” Farivar said.

Iranian-Americans have long complained that US sanctions force them to use murky channels to send and receive money from Iran. Hopes that the nuclear negotiations would make it easier to conduct such transactions have not been realized, even as Iran has gained access to several billion dollars in oil revenues that had been frozen in foreign accounts.

The new channels are intended for trade with entities that the government of Iran has approved but apparently not for ordinary individuals. What’s more, the US Treasury will not identify the channels, although they are reported to include banks in Japan and Switzerland. “These channels are for the big money,” Farivar told Al-Monitor. “Nobody is going to worry about my $100,000.”

Many Western banks continue to refuse to do any business involving Iran because of heavy fines imposed by US authorities against several that violated the sanctions. Farhad Alavi, a lawyer who advises Iranian-Americans as well as multinational corporations on trade issues, said US sanctions effectively force many individuals and entities dealing with Iran to use methods akin to hawalas, whereby money is given to a broker in one country and paid out by a broker in another country. Fees are high and abuse is common, he said.

“It inherently makes transactions look more suspect in many ways, whether you are selling medical devices or just receiving remittances,” Alavi stated. “To a bank, an authorized payment for food sales or a remittance might come from a trading company in Hong Kong or Kuwait. A lot of things can happen that are not traceable.”

Alavi added that US banks fear violating a combination of regulations, beginning with the Patriot Act passed after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. “This, coupled with the rise in the use of economic sanctions regulations as an instrument yields what we have today,” he said.

Iranian-Americans had hoped the situation would improve following the conclusion last year of the Joint Plan of Action between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1). Under the accord, which was extended in July until the end of November, the P5+1 promised to “establish a financial channel to facilitate humanitarian trade for Iran’s domestic needs using Iranian oil revenues held abroad.” The channel is also supposed to help Iranian students in the United States pay their expenses.

In Washington at a Sept. 28 conference of the National Iranian-American Council, Erich Ferrari, another lawyer specializing in sanctions, said that it had taken until May to establish the channel. He said Treasury officials tell American companies seeking to sell goods to Iran to “ask your importers in Iran” how to get paid, rather than telling Americans what foreign banks to approach.

US officials have hinted that it might be possible under a comprehensive nuclear agreement to re-establish correspondent accounts between US banks nd Iranian banks that have not been designated for support of terrorism or other illicit activities. This would likely restore Iran to the global electronic banking transfer system known as SWIFT. The prospects for such an accord are, however, uncertain.

“OFAC and the Treasury have gone to great pains to say that humanitarian transactions are authorized,” Alavi told Al-Monitor. “OFAC needs to come up with a viable route.”

The Treasury official told Al-Monitor, “Americans who are experiencing problems or misunderstandings on how to transfer personal remittances to Iran under the regulations can call the OFAC helpline at 202-622-2580 or email OFAC_Feedback@treasury.gov. ”

As for Farivar, he said he’s been waiting to get back the $121,860.78 that was in the Santander account so he can return the contributions to those who thought they would be helping to build an orphanage in Iran.

An Iranian Sunni Kurd woman stands behind a satellite dish on her home’s rooftop at Palangan village in Kurdistan province, southwest of Tehran, May 11, 2011. (photo by REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl)

An official with Iran’s Department of Environment has said that jamming satellites can cause cancer and that the agency recommends eliminating jamming efforts by the Iranian government.

Saeed Motassadi, an official with the Department of Environment, said, “A committee was formed in cooperation between the Department of Environment and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology to address the situation of jamming.” Motassadi told Islamic Republic News Agency, which is managed by the administration of President Hassan Rouhani, that the meetings reached the minister level and that resolutions have been approved.

“The topic of jamming causing cancer was studied many times, and the possibility exists of this illness coming about in individuals as a result from the effects of jamming,” Motassadi said.

Iran has faced sanctions for these jamming efforts and is now believed to be conducting “local jamming,” in which satellite dishes on the rooftops of private houses are targeted. Satellite dishes are ubiquitous inIran’s large cities such as Tehran and even in villages.

Motassadi said, “The recommendation of the Department of Environment is to completely eliminate jamming.” On the concern of conservatives, he said, “If actions are to be taken to confront the cultural invasion and protect detriment to the country, it is better to take other paths.” Motassadi did not say which “other paths” he meant, but in recent years, Iranian police have made efforts to collect and destroyrooftop satellite dishes. These efforts, which have been highly publicized in the media, have been largely ineffective.

According the Motassadi, the joint committee’s investigation is ongoing and will present its final results and solutions. However, he said that they needed more agencies involved.

Cancer is one of leading causes of death in Iran, and conflicting reports and statements have been made by various officials about the effects of jamming.

On Sept. 27, Mohammad Hossein Ghorbani, spokesman for the parliament’s health care committee, warned about the rise of cancer, saying it is “a serious alarm for the country.” He blamed a variety of factors for the increase in cancer cases, such as waste, poor gasoline quality, poor quality of food, poor inspection standards in automobiles and unhealthy water.

In February, Iran’s health minister, Dr. Seyyed Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, announced a special committee to research the health effects of jamming. Dr. Hashemi said that the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the Atomic Energy Organization were a part of this committee. It is not clear whether this committee works with the Department of Environment.

In October 2012, the head of Sarem Cell Research Center said that jamming of satellite stations was causing an increase in miscarriages. The Health Ministry denied the claim.

In August 2012, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied even knowing what body was conducting the jamming.

Prison authorities ordered the crowd to leave and assured Jabbari’s family that she was not to be hanged — a statement the authorities commonly make before an execution so it can be carried out quietly, without incident.

Meanwhile, Ayatollah Boroujerdi has been taken from his prison cell in Evin to be executed and is being held incommunicado at an undisclosed location. Also “missing” is dissident blogger Mohammad Reza Pour Shajari and prominent student activist Arash Sadeghi, both presumed to have been re-arrested according to friends and family.

The “mainstream media” and so-called Human Rights Groups have, as usual, remained silent. The regime tells the media that information about “missing” prisoners is inaccurate in order to prevent publication of the news.

The Iranian killing machine seems to be counting on the reluctance of the U.S. to intervene in any serious way, in order to run its nuclear weapons program to completion.

Iran continues to hide behind the world’s focus on ISIS to accelerate political arrests, executions, “prison cleansing” and above all, its program to achieve nuclear capability.

Iran seems to be counting on the reluctance of the United States to intervene in any serious way, in order to run its nuclear weapons program to completion.

Most recently, according to the International Committee Against Execution, Reyhaneh Jabbari, who was transferred to Rajai Shahr Prison to be hanged on Monday September 29, has been returned to her cell in Shahr-Ray Prison. Her execution was halted only to be re-scheduled for Oct 8, 2014.

On September 29, Jabbari was seized by prison guards during her shower, forced to dress and told that she would be hanged in the morning. After the prison staff allowed her to make one last phone call to her mother, she was transferred to Rajai-Shahr prison and placed in solitary confinement to await execution at dawn.

Upon her daughter’s transfer, Jabbari’s mother, Shole Pakravan, rushed to Rajai-Shahr prison with her husband, two daughters and a few friends. In front of the prison a crowd grew quickly to protest Jabbari’s execution. Prison authorities ordered the crowd to leave and assured Jabbari’s family that she was not to be hanged — a statement the authorities commonly make before an execution so it can be carried out quietly, without incident. Shole Pakravan refused to leave the premises until her daughter was transferred unharmed back to her original cell in Shahr-Ray Prison.

Meanwhile, the news spread through social media quickly, among a number of Italian, American and Swedish online news agencies. Additionally, the European Union, United Nations, along with most human rights organizations were alerted to the imminent execution. As a result, her execution was halted — but re-scheduled for Oct 8, 2014. Perhaps the Iranian regime is hoping her case will be overlooked by then amidst headlines dominated by ISIS.

Jabbari was sentenced to death when she was 19 years old for stabbing a man who tried to rape her. Human rights activists have been demanding the reversal of her death sentence and subsequent release from prison, as she acted in self-defense. Islamic law, however, rarely recognizes self-defense, especially in cases of rape. Many women have already been executed for defending themselves; many more await execution.

Meanwhile, Ayatollah Hossein Kazamani Boroujerdi has been taken from his cell in Evin Prison to be executed, and has since been “missing.” The Iranian regime does not allow the media inside Iran to report on missing prisoners; deeming the information inaccurate and propaganda against the regime.

Also “missing” is Mohammad Reza Pour Shajari; who was re-arrested a few days, ago according to his daughter. The regime is denying the arrest and any knowledge of Mr. Pour Shajari’s disappearance.

Arash Sadeghi, a prominent political student activist, was arrested a few hours after posting comments on his Facebook page criticizing the regime, according to a source close to Sadeghi who was interviewed by Gatestone Institute and wishes to remain anonymous:

“Yes, they come for him and the rest of us who had been involved in the uprising of 2009. They are arresting everyone… mass arrests inside Iran of anyone who opposes them now or has opposed them in the past. They are counting on ISIS to distract the world from this systematic cleansing… luckily I was not home and was not arrested. We have no idea where Arash is, I just know that they arrested him hours after his Facebook comments… I also fear they are torturing him all over again… he is very frail, only 60 kilos now after what they did to him in prison last time. “

There has been no news of Sadeghi since his arrest on September 6, 2014. Iran is evidently escalating the cleansing of its prisoners — political and non-political alike; many prisoners have apparently been taken to Rajai Shahr prison to await execution.